We had Mike King on the show this week, disillusioned with the Ministry of Health over money designated for mental health, going walkabout and ending up nowhere. He told me to ask for an OIA on where it’s gone, to petition the Ministry of Health, which he called incompetent, to find out what they’ve done with it.

What I found odd amidst all this was that he was happy to take a swipe at the Ministry, but didn’t want to blame the government.

Surely they are one in the same? So he was handing back his New Zealand Order of Merit, didn’t want it anymore, because he felt he couldn’t comfortably hold onto something he’d earned for services to mental health, when families were still struggling, when the money had not gone where it needed to go, and when the problems were all still there.

So, cut to yesterday and Grant Robertson entering the fray. He says the government still wants to work with King, and as reported by Newshub, that’s despite him calling the Ministry of Health ‘morons’, and referring to the PM as ‘condescending’.

Robertson, of course, doesn’t agree with King’s views on the Ministry or the PM, why would he, this government is very adept at rejecting any and all criticism. Robertson also blamed Covid for getting in the way, which as we all know did not hit us until 2020, the mental health money was dished out in 2019. So how do you excuse away that whole year of nothing? Who knows

But Robertson wants to keep at it. He says he’s going to talk to Andrew Little, he’s going to keep up the work, he’s going to ‘make sure they deliver.’ Is that a promise? Is he being a little too definitive here? Because that sounds like a big call. And it’s something I can guarantee Mike King will follow him up on.

Problem is, why does it take a guy almost burning out, getting furious, lashing out at the Ministry and handing back his Order of Merit medal, to get some action? Is the Ministry only accountable if it gets shamed into it? Do you have to literally kick up a huge song and dance to get their attention? And even then, no one’s actually produced any accountability yet on where that money’s gone, just some promises that they’ll find out. And that it’s a slow moving rollout of investment and resources over 5 years.

I guess what’s most galling for me is hearing the government’s oft-used cliché: ‘we’re in conversation’. Robertson said he’s ‘in conversation with the Health Minister’ and that to me just smacks of delay tactics. It means nothing.

‘We’re talking’ is essentially what he’s saying, when what struggling families in the mental health sector desperately need is ‘doing’, not talking. Actions speak louder than words. It’s time the government fronted up with some, instead of empty promises, chit chat, and being in endless ‘conversation.’